Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz speaks during a press conference after meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, Serbia, on April 4, 2019. Belgrade | Associated Press
Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz, who is being investigated for bribery and breach of trust, has resigned after fierce opposition from the opposition.
Austrian public broadcaster ORF reported on the 9th (local time) that Prime Minister Kurz had resigned at a press conference saying he did not want the government to be confused by the prosecution’s announcement that he was subject to an investigation into corruption. However, Prime Minister Kurz plans to retain the position of leader and member of the National Assembly of the main party, the Kuomintang. Prime Minister Kurz recommended foreign minister Alexander Schalenberg as his successor.
The announcement of the resignation of Prime Minister Kurz came three days after Austrian prosecutors announced on the 6th that they were investigating allegations of bribery and breach of trust. Prime Minister Kurz is accused of using Treasury funds for advertising expenses in a newspaper to report favorable to him between 2016 as foreign minister and 2018 after becoming prime minister. Prosecutors searched the Kuomintang party, the prime minister’s office, the Ministry of Finance, and the office and house of the prime minister’s aide last week for an investigation.
Prime Minister Kurz completely denied the allegations after the prosecution announced it. However, opposition parties such as the Social Democratic Party as well as the National Party and the Green Party, which form a coalition government, have demanded a replacement of the prime minister. Three opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Neos, also announced that they would submit a bill of no confidence in the prime minister.
Despite the resignation of Prime Minister Kurz, the coalition government of the National Party, which holds 71 of 183 seats in the parliament, and the Green Party, which holds 26 seats, is expected to continue. Werner Kogler, leader of the Green Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Austria, said he would continue to form a coalition government after Kurz announced his resignation, saying it was “the right and important step”. The Austrian daily Curiere reported that Kogler’s representative and deputy prime minister had a meeting with Schalenberg on the same day.
Apart from the case, Prime Minister Kurz is also under investigation on charges of perjury in front of the parliamentary investigation team investigating corruption in state affairs in 2019. Prime Minister Kurz testified that his close aide Thomas Schmidt was not involved in the process of being appointed head of the state-owned holding company Obag. However, prosecutors have secured a transcript of a messenger conversation that states that Prime Minister Kurz and Schmidt had previously conspired to appoint Obag.
Prime Minister Kurz, who started his political career as a member of the Kuomintang Youth Party in 2003, served as the Minister of Integration in 2011 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2013. During his tenure in office, he clearly showed right-wing tendencies, such as implementing a strong anti-refugee policy. In the aftermath of corruption in the Liberal Party at the time in 2019, the Prime Minister’s no-confidence bill was passed, and in May of that year, he faced a crisis of resigning from his post, but five months later he won the general election and came back to form a new coalition with the Green Party.
Chancellor Schallenberg becomes prime minister with the approval of a majority in the parliament. He is known as an aide to Prime Minister Kurz’s anti-refugee policy, and he is a diplomatic veteran who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997 and has held diplomatic posts in the Austrian government and the European Union (EU).
The next general election will be held in 2024 if the next Austrian chancellor holds a general election as scheduled. Last month, the Kuomintang’s approval rating was around 35%, ranking first in the approval rating of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which has about 22%.
[관련기사] ’31-year-old youth’ Kurz, Austrian Prime Minister ‘reservation’
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